Pictured in this 1954 photo on the steps of the Supreme Court Building, in Washington, D.C., are NAACP attorneys who argued the school segregation case, Brown v. Board of Education . From left, Thurgood Marshall, Louis Redding and U. Simpson Tate. ANONYMOUS, FILE PHOTO, ASSOCIATED PRESS

Saturday, May 17, marks the 60th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education – the most powerfully influential legal ruling affecting public education in America. The unanimous decision struck down “separate but equal” segregation in public schools. The ruling’s implications reverberated well beyond the schoolhouses of its day, as it signaled the path toward racial integration in all aspects of American life.

Brown cannot be appreciated without understanding what had preceded it. For much of the previous 60 years, race relations in the United States had been dominated by racial segregation. Brown toppled the court’s 1896 decision, Plessy v. Ferguson, which had given rise to the concept that racial separation did not violate the Constitution as long as separate facilities for the races were equal.

Brown v. Board of Education was filed in 1951 in Topeka, Kansas, when 13 parents sued on behalf of their children. The lead plaintiff, Oliver L. Brown, worked for Santa Fe Railroad and was a minister. His third-grade daughter, Linda, was prohibited from attending a “white” school because they were African American. She had to walk six blocks to her school bus stop, then ride to a school one mile away – even though another school was only seven blocks from home.

Brown was heard by the Supreme Court in the spring of 1953, but no decision was rendered. It was reheard in the fall. When the unanimous decision was announced, all justices were in the courthouse, including Robert Jackson, who was recovering from a heart attack. His presence underscored the unanimity of the court’s decision in the history-making ruling.

Reaction to the decision was mixed; there was organized opposition, and some jurisdictions closed schools rather than integrate them. Yet, the arc of justice had irrevocably turned in America; there was no turning back.

In 1955, the Supreme Court considered arguments by schools seeking relief from having to comply with the desegregation orders. It is in this decision, known as Brown II, where the court ordered that desegregation occur and “with all deliberate speed.” This most famous phrase in American education history stems from a poem written by Francis Thompson, “The Hound of Heaven,” describing the pursuit of the human soul by God.

As we commemorate six decades since this landmark case, it is imperative to acknowledge the advances made: Prior to Brown, only about one in seven African Americans, compared with more than one in three whites, graduated from high school. Today, some 85 percent of African Americans graduate from high school.

Vast disparities remain, including disturbing trends exposing the re-segregation of American schools: Three-fourths of African Americans and two-thirds of Latinos attend schools where a majority of the students qualify as low-income. In California, basic rates of proficiency in English and mathematics between African Americans and Latinos and their white counterparts reveal disturbing achievement gaps.

Minority students are much more likely to be concentrated in schools where they are being instructed by a teacher evaluated as “ineffective” or less likely to actually possess a teaching credential in the subject being taught.

Inmates of California prisons are overwhelmingly minority, and 70 percent do not have a high school diploma.

Saturday marks an opportunity for us to reflect on the legacy of Brown v. Board of Education, the speed at which we have traveled, the obstacles we have confronted and the challenges for education that lie ahead. Education is the quintessential path to the American Dream; as such, it will ever be traveled by the Oliver and Linda Browns of a new generation.

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